THE HISTORY OF FAMILY
OUR POLISH FAMILY HISTORY
MINIAKOWSKI
The Miniakowski name is rare in Poland. The family lineage determined by DNA testing is believed to have originated in the Eurasian Steppes north of the Black and Caspian Seas. It is also believed that they are descendants of the Kurgan Culture known for the domestication of the horse (3000 BC) and to be the first speakers of the Indo European language. However, the DNA also indicates a Viking heritage. This family has distinctly different DNA from the family Minkowski/Minakowski.
STEFAN STANISLAW MINIAKOWSKI
1890 - 1934
Stefan was born on the 15th May 1890 in Lwow, L'Viv Ukraine. Lwow became part of the Ukraine in 1944. He was in the military and registered on the 19th November 1918 in Lublin Poland as a 2nd Lieutenant, General Staff; Piludski Institute. From 1918 - 1921 he is recorded as por.taczn - intelligence service and has been awarded the Valiant Cross. A record in 1924 shows Stefan Miniakowski as an offerowie pospolitrgo, ruszenia with the Cross of Valour.
He married Zofia Czubinska (1903 - 1991) the daughter of Ignacy Czubinski (1855- 1903) and Marianna Gulewicz (1860 - ). Zofia was born on January 6th 1903 in Poland and died in Warsaw, Mazowieckie, Poland on September 8th 1991. Ignacy and Marianna had the following children:
Janina Kruszynka nee Czubinska (1885 - 1956); Jadwiga Szulc nee Czubinksa (1891 - 1965); Czeslawa Antonov nee Czubinska (1900 - 1978); Jozef Czubinksi and Marjan Czubinski.
Jozef Czubinski born 1836
Aniela Czubinska nee Lejman
Zofia Czubinska
Marianna Gulewicz
Ignacy Czubinski
Stefan and Zofia Miniakowski nee Czubinska had the following children - 5 sons:
Stefan Miniakowski (1916 - 1993
Stanislaw Miniakowski (1918 - 1981)
Sylwan Bonoventury Benek Miniakowski (1920 - 1990)
Janek Dobroslaw Miniakowski (1923 - 1994)
Mieczyslaw Miniakowski ( 1925 - 1988)
Stefan
Bonoventury
Jan
Mieczyslaw
STEFAN MINIAKOWSKI (MINER)
1916 - 1993
Stefan Miniakowski was born on the 18th February 1916 in Mohylow, Ryssland, Russian Poland, the eldest son of Zofia and Stefan Miniakowski. After the German invasion he left Poland and went to London and under the Polish Directorate he joined the British RAF service in 1940. He married Ruth Ingeborg Jacobsson (1920 - 1990) in Westminster, Middlesex England in 1947. Ruth was the daughter of Klas Emile Jacobsson and Hulda Maia Johansson and she was born on the 20th May 1920 in Stora Kopparberg Dalarne Sverige Sweden and died 16th September 1990 in Severige, Sweden.
At some time Stefan changed his name to Stefan Miner (family story says this was to protect family still in Poland) His daughter Karen Gunilla Miner currently lives in Sweden (2019). Stefan's grandson Anders Stefan Myszak currently lives in Denmark. Stefan Miniakowski (Miner) died on the 11th August 1993 in Stora Kopparberg, Faluns Kn (Kopparbergs Ian, Dalarna, Sweden. A recipient of the Polish Virtutu Militari he fought with the British RAF from 1940 in the Polish Squadron and flew 9 operations with Polish Squadron 400 as gunner and was eventually interned in Sweden after the plane was ditched over Sweden, the second time he had been forced to bail out of a stricken aircraft. It was during this period that he met his future wife. He was released in September 1944 from the Falan Internment Camp and left Stockholm for the UK on the 8th September 1944.
10th October 1943
"Fuel shortage on return from SOE mission over Poland. All bailed out over Halland, Sweden. Aircraft crashed pilotless. ; Consolidated B-24d Liberator 111; RAF
Pilot: W/O. Bronisław Hułas 780457 PAF Age 30. Interned - safe
Pilot: Fl/Lt. Czech Jerzy Nowacki P-1046 PAF Age 28. Interned - safe
Fl/Eng: Fl/Sgt. Witold Wacław Rucinski 792655 PAF Age 22. Interned - safe
Obs: Fl/Lt. Mieczysław Malinowski P-0708 PAF Age 26. Interned - safe
W/Op/Air/Gnr: Fl/Sgt. Bolesław Wozniak 792865 PAF Age 32. Interned - safe
Air/Gnr: W/O. Józef Dubiel 792209 PAF Age 27. Interned - safe
Air/Gnr: Fl/Sgt. Stefan Miniakowski 782238 PAF Age 27. Interned - safe"
Reference: https://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/wiki.php?id=138546
"Sgt Stefan Miniakowski was crewman of a 300 (Polish) Squadron Wellington "X for Breakfast" which was shot down over Belgium the night of 27/28 April 1942. The crew bailed out and Miniakowski landed about three miles south of Givet. Miniakowski was sheltered in a house at Givet where was soon joined by his observer F/O Wawerski. They went on to Paris together but were separated whilst changing trains. Wawerski must have made it across the demarcation line to the ZNO because he was later at Chambaran camp before being transferred to Campo 5 in Italy with 161 Lysander pilot John Mott. Miniakowski went on to cross the demarcation line at Favarolles but was soon arrested and taken to a hospital at Chateauroux under guard. On 15 May he was transferred to the Pasteur Hospital at Nice, which was used for the internees at Fort de la Rivere, and where he met Whitney Straight." *
www.groups.yahoo.com/group/300 polishsquadron/message/2815 stscript
"It was necessary to escape the Pasteur Hospital during the daytime because the doors were all locked and security generally increased at night following the escape of Pte Fullager and L/Cpl Prady earlier that month (they were both sheltered at Louis Nouveau's before being taken across the Pyrenees to the British Consulate in Barcelona the same month). O'Leary already been told by London that the return of Straight was important so when he learnt from Prady that Straight was in the hospital, he sent Francis Blanchain to Nice to organise his rescue. Despite stories of Blanchain enlisting the help of the same nurse Nicole Brugere who had helped Prady and Fuller escape, and of her smuggling sleeping pills to Straight so he could drug his guards, Straight related to MI9 that he, Miniakowski and Knight simply walked out of the hospital on 22 June during some "confusion" and met Blanchain outside. Blanchain took them to Nimes where they stayed at Gaston Negre's home at 2 rue Porte de France before going on to Marseille and Louis Nouveau's."
Ref: http://www.conscript-heroes.com/Art15-Bluebottle-960.html
"The servicemen collected in 'Bluebottle I' were Wing Commander Whitney Straight, Sergeant Stefan Miniakowski, Private Charles Knight, Sergeant John Beecroft, Sergeant Henry Hanwell, Lieutenant Anthony Deane-Drummond and Sergeant T. G. Johnson, and the undertaking also extracted the SOE agent Flight Lieutenant André Simon." Collected by the TARANA on a beach in the south west of Vichy France 13/14th July 1942
https://codenames.info/operation/bluebottle-i/
Date:28-APR-1942
Owner/operator:300 ("Ziemi Mazowieckiej") Squadron Royal Air Force (300 ("Ziemi Mazowieckiej") Sqn RAF)
Registration:Z1276
C/n / msn:BH-W
Fatalities: 0 / Occupants: 6
Aircraft damage:Written off (damaged beyond repair)
Location:Near Givet - France
Phase: En route
Nature: Military
Departure airport: RAF Hemswell
Outbound - Possible claim by Hptm Herbert Bonsch StabIII./NJG2 at 02:15. Aircraft crashed near Givet (Ardennes)France.
Crew
Pilot:P-1719/783398 Plt Off Jan Mieczysław Fusinski - Evaded.
Pilot:P-0840 Plt Off Wacław Piotr Wasik - Evaded.
Observer:P-1448 Fg Off Tadeusz Wawerski - PoW
Wireless Operator/Air Gunner:P-2207/793809 Sgt Aleksander Małecki - Evaded.
Air Gunner:783359 Sgt Mieczysław Sierpina PoW. Detained in hospital due to his injuries. No PoW number given. Returned to UK on 6 October 1944 probably due to prisoner exchange.
Air Gunner:782238 Sgt Stefan Miniakowski Evaded. "
Reference: https://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/wiki.php?id=202962
See:
https://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/wiki.php?id=138546
https://listakrzystka.pl/en/miniakowski-stefan/;
www.conscript-heroes.com/Art%200operations%Bluebottle.html
http://www.conscript-heroes.com/Art15-Bluebottle-960.html
https://codenames.info/operation/bluebottle-i/
Stefan Miniakowski in the blue shirt with family in the USA
STANISLAW MINIAKOWSKI
1918 - 1981
Stanislaw Miniakowski was the second son of Zofia and Stefan Miniakowski and was born in Poland in about 1918 and died on the 27th August 1981 in Poland. He married Stefania and had two children Edward and Renata. Renata married Szarek Prokurat and they had a daughter Marta.
Stefania Miniakowska Renata Prokurat Szarek Prokurat Marta Prokurat.
Sylwan Bonoventury Benek Miniakowski
(1920 - 1990)
Sylvan Bonoventury was born to Zofia and Stefan Miniakowski in Poland in 1920, married Mieczylawa and had three children. We have very little information on him
Janek Dobroslaw Miniakowski
(1923 - 1994)
Jan Miniakowski was born to Zofia and Stefan Miniakowski on the 3rd February 1923 at Zegrze near Warsaw, Poland and died the 8th June 1994 in Warsaw Poland, aged 71 years. He married Aleksandra Zabicka (1906 - 1973) and they had two children Tomek Miniakowski (1951 - 1997) and Tamara Miniakowski.
Before the outbreak of the Second World War, Jan graduated from two classes (years) at the Men’s Private School, B Albert (1937-1939). During the school years of 1940-1941 Jan attended the preparatory courses for Private Vocational Schools at Franciska Biernackiego, ul Bednarska ,4 (street address in Warsaw).
He joined the underground forces (PsuedoniumPsuedoniumPsuedonum –“Kora” ) under the Command of Henry Malowidski (PsuedoniumMalowidskiego (Psuedonum—“Ran”) as a soldier in the Armament/Army section and from January 1941 participated in various sabotage campaigns and armament acquisitions. From January 1943 until the Summer of 1944 he was a guerrilla fighter in the area known as the White Forest and adopted the discharging of weapons. (translation exact but not to meaning). In July 1944 Jan was allocated to Circuit VI (Prague), Warsaw Army District 5 Group 1643, platoon 1646.
In early August in Prague, his team successfully terminated a truckload of armed Germans. He then acted as a Supplier, supplying food for civilians and insurgents, and mainly acquiring and delivering flour from the Mill at Bialystok to the bakery at Siedlce.
On 25/8/1944 Jan was captured by the Germans.
Jan Miniakowski was deported to a camp in Zakroczym and later taken to a camp in Pile (Ger. Schneidermil) and after a few days was taken as a P.O.W. to a Forced Labour Camp “Oberhausen” in Westphalia working in a depleted coal mine Schachty IV, then moved to build German bunkers.
After Liberation of Germany in 1945 Jan was in a temporary Polish camp in Lippstadt, (Westfalia) occupied by the 1St Armoured Division under Gen. Maczek, and on the 18/11/1945 he legally received his P.O.W. card No 6677 of the Polish Armed Forces and was promoted to Sergeant-Major. When he learnt that his family “was found” in Jelenia Gorze he decided to reach them through Bremen to Szczecin.
Jan Dobroslaw Miniakowski, P.U. Repatriation Certificate No. 268108 dated 15/7/1946. In 1947 Jan returned to Warsaw.
Reference translated from Polish: https://www.1944.pl/powstancze-biogramy/jan-miniakowski,31557.html
Franciska Biernackiego, ul Bednarska ,4 in Warsaw
Mieczyslaw Miniakowski (Minnor)
(1925 - 1988)
Mieczylaw (Mitch) Miniakowski was born to Zofia and Stefan Miniakowski on the 6th January 1925 in Lida Poland - at the time of his birth Lida was designated as Poland. He later changed his name to Minnor which was first recorded in the USA in 1959. He died on the 23rd October 1988 in San Diego, California.
Mitch at 16 years was picked up by the Germans in Warsaw in March of 1941 and shipped to slave labour in Germany and commenced work in a munition factory Rheinmetal Borsig, Unterluss Germany on the 25th April 1941.
The following brief records give some further details:
4 March 1942 Uelzen Camp 111 - Registration
1942 Erbach, Odenwaldkreis, Hessen, Germany - no specifics given on records.
1944 - 1945 Unterluss Kr. Celle Germany - forced labour at Rheinmetal in an ammunition factory.
6 April 1946 DP Camp Schwabisch-Gmund Germany Also from 26 April DP Camp Germany.
Transferred 21 December 1949 Resettlemant Centre Ludwigsburg to Bremin - Grohn, Germany.
16 January 1950 Bremerhaven, Bremen, Germany - General J.H. McRae; Polish Nationality: Number 1-814462; Age: 24; To 2010 West Webster Ave Chicago; Baggage - A 7407529
On the 11 June 1953 to San Francisco, California;
During this time period he formed two relationships and had two children born in Germany - a son in Ladhe, near Unterluss Germany in 1945 and a daughter in Bamberg, Germany in 1948 in the American Zone where Mitch was working as a driver for the american airforce. The son currently lives in Australia and the daughter lives in the USA.
Mieczylaw arrived in New York on the 26th January 1950 on the General J. H. McRae and he lived in Webster Street, Chicago for a period of time before moving to California. He applied for american naturalisation in San Francisco, California in 1952. He states that he is 5ft 7 inches, grey eyes and black hair and that his wife is Ralphine on his petition. He also states that he has been in the American Air force since January 18 1952 and is residing at 5th Motor Vehicle Squad, Travis Air Force Base, California. Service Number: AF 16 399 536. He married Ralphine G. Stuck (1921 - 2011) on the 3rd October 1953 in Solana, California, USA. He was granted naturalisation on the 13th November 1953 - Naturalisation Reg: 7209792 and Alien Reg: 7407529. He remained in the US airforce and records show various residences at bases in the US and then in Germany.
He served in the American air force from the 18th January 1952 until his release on the 2nd February 1972. He also served in Korea and Vietnam. He served in Vietnam at the same time as his son born in Germany in 1945 - the son he had never known and would never meet.
In Cook County on the 23rd June 1956 he married Elfreida Kiesling. On the 18th July 1956 he and his wife left the United States and two sons were born to Elfreida and Mitch one in Wiesbaden Germany and the other in Berlin, Germany. A daughter Vivian Minnor (1961 - 1961) was born later on their return to the USA in Sarpy County Nebraska USA but she died in the same year.
He resided from about 1972 and in later life in Oceanside California where he died and he is buried in the Eternal Hills Memorial Park, Oceanside County, California USA.
